The Antiquities Advisory Board has endorsed a proposal to establish a formal relationship between the statutory monument declaration system and the administrative grading system for historic buildings.

At present the Antiquities Authority can declare a place or a building as a monument after consultation with the board and with the Chief Executive's approval, while the board has been grading historic buildings based on an administrative system. There has been no automatic linkage or direct correlation between the grading and the monument declaration systems.

The Development Bureau said today the introduction of a clear and transparent linkage is timely as the board will complete the initial grading of 1,440 buildings by early 2009.

The endorsed arrangements are:

* the list of Grade I buildings will be regarded as providing a pool of highly valuable heritage buildings for consideration by the authority as to whether some of them may have reached the "high threshold" of monuments to be put under statutory protection;

* the authority is committed to actively considering every Grade I building for possible monument declaration based on such factors as the buildings' heritage significance, demolition risks, the owners' and the public's aspirations, and ownership of the buildings; and,

* the Commissioner for Heritage's Office will take the initiative to inform private owners of Grade I buildings their buildings' status and historical significance; their eligibility to apply for Government financial assistance for building maintenance; the likely Government intervention in case the buildings are under demolition threat; and a willingness to discuss with the owners possible economic incentives for the preservation of their buildings on a case-by-case basis.